Nagpur: Poor show in 2019, yet panel ayes road patcher hire

NAGPUR: Despite poor performance in repairing potholes on city roads earlier, the NMC’s standing committee on Tuesday gave nod to invite tenders for hiring Insta Road Patcher machine at a cost of Rs1.99 crore.
Standing committee chairman Prakash Bhoyar told media persons that the civic body will first seek the machine’s performance report from the hotmix department before deciding on hiring the same.
In 2019, the NMC had first hired the machine, which could be used even during rains, for Rs1.99 crore. The machine was supposed to help repair potholes faster and was hired for a year. However, it failed to give the desired results as repaired patchwork started peeling off within a fortnight.
The hotmix department had submitted the proposal to hire the machine given the poor condition of tar roads in the city, Bhoyar said and added that it was not the right time to submit the proposal. “Actually, the process to repair potholes should be started early so that motorists do not suffer during monsoon,” he pointed out. “Hence, the civic body is converting city roads with concrete ones,” he said.
With completion of cement roads, slowly the complaints of citizens pertaining to pothole riddled roads will be a thing of the past, said Bhoyar.
The panel also okayed the civic administration’s Rs1.14 crore proposal to shortlist a firm for setting up 12 small sewage treatment plants in gardens alongside nullahs.
According to Bhoyar, it will be the first time that NMC will treat sewage water and use it for non-potable purposes like maintaining gardens. With this, the NMC will add another feather in its cap by using treated sewage water for maintaining the city’s lungs (gardens). Already, the NMC is providing 220MLD treated sewage water to Koradi thermal power station.
The standing committee also gave its nod to appoint a new agency for mobile phone networks. For this, the NMC will spend Rs50 lakh per annum, said Bhoyar.